Interesting. ( I guess people tend to say that when they disagree, but want to be polite...) I saw Wise Blood on TCM a few years ago, and absolutely hated it. A real visceral reaction, I loathed it. ( hope no one's worried I'm holding back here.)Swithin wrote: ↑February 6th, 2023, 10:16 pmI think Wise Blood is one of Huston's best films. Late in his career, he seemed to emulate John Ford. The opening of Wise Blood is quite similar to the opening of The Grapes of Wrath, and the "feeling for the land" which you mention is certainly more characteristic of Ford's work than it ever was with Huston's earlier work. I think Huston's greatest film is his last: The Dead, in which he emulates Ford even more.CinemaInternational wrote: ↑February 6th, 2023, 3:05 pm just quick notes....
Wise Blood (1979) is a flavorful Deep South Dark Comedy from the work of Flannery O'Conner involving Brad Dourif as an angry young men who tries to stat a church build around nothing. It's quite scathing and it captures a feeling for the land very well. A good late career offering from director John Huston....
I should say first, I 've been to Georgia, specifically Savanah, and have a true affection for the place. While there, I bought a copy of "A Good Man is Hard to Find", a collection of stories by Georgia novelist Flannery O'Connor. But I've never read it. I think after seeing "Wise Blood", which is based on a Flannery O'Connor novel, I was completely put off reading anything by her.
I don't want to be impolite to CinemaInternational and Swithin, both of whom I respect. So I guess I should say that I do acknowledge that "Wise Blood" is in its own way a "good" film, well-acted, well-directed, etc. After all, it's directed by John Huston, one of the greats.I just hated the premise, the characters, and the story. It struck me as exceedingly negative and nasty. ( and I don't always mind negative, it just depends on how it's done, I suppose.)
I cannot stand Brad Dourif's character. He is so messed up about sex and religion. I do understand that lots of people are, but the way it's depicted in "Wise Blood", is particularly repellant to me. He's all about death and sin and nihilism, and he seems to conflate these concepts with sex - again, not unheard of with psychologically disturbed characters.
I just found the whole experience of watching "Wise Blood" to be profoundly distasteful. Or to use a childish word that comes to mind, "yucky".
...I do agree with Swithin that Huston's last work, "The Dead", is a great film.